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My writing group spent 2 hours arguing about one prompt: fixed opening line vs. total freedom
Last Tuesday at the library in Salem we tried a prompt that gave everyone the same first sentence, and half the group said it lit a fire under them while the other half said it killed every idea they had. I ended up writing 900 words I actually liked, but my friend Dana stared at her screen for 40 minutes and quit. So which side are you on, does a locked first line help you or box you in?
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fiona_murray1mo ago
Our group tried this exact thing last month and what worked for us was giving people the option to use the line as their opener or just as a springboard somewhere in the middle. Half the room still stuck it right at the top and ran with it, but the folks who froze up got to write their way into the sentence instead of out of it. Dana might do better with something like a required last line, since you already know where you're landing and the rest is yours to build. Total freedom sounds nice but it can be just as paralyzing as a locked line, so a middle option usually keeps everyone writing.
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